Shades of Grey
by AprilUnderground
Summary: Over 3000 years have passed since the fall of Fire Lord Ozai, yet the world is still not at peace. The heroes from the past must become the heroes of the future, or the peace they fought to maintain will shatter, and the world will face war once again. AU
1. Prolouge: Birthright

**AN:** Whoa. So, um, this is my first big, multi chapter thing, and I am kind of scared. Hence, I am requesting that if you so desire, please, help me with this. Nothing is set in stone yet, so if you want something to happen, just review with it. I am intimidated by this big of a project and would like as much help as possible. Anyways, here we go! On with the story!

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**Prolouge**

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_He gives his harness bells a shake  
To ask if there's some mistake.  
The only other sound's the sweep  
Of easy wind and downy flake._

_The woods are lovely, dark and deep,  
But I have promises to keep,  
And miles to go before I sleep,  
And miles to go before I sleep._

- Robert Frost, Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

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It was all quiet outside.

Inside, it all seemed the same. However, the rustling of fabric and the hushed tones in which things were said highlighted the fact that whatever was going on in there was illegal.

The room was large and warm, filled with the light of candles and occasionally lit up by the effervescent happiness of a human down on Earth. The furniture was sparse, only a baker's dozen chairs and a small table in the centre of the room, but it still emitted the sense of home that everywhere in the building did.

The chair at the head of the table creaked as the person sitting in it turned away from the mirror on the wall and towards the rest of those sitting. When the figure spoke, it's voice was young and weary, as though it had seen too much of the world already.

"It cannot be changed."

The woman sitting next to him tentatively lifted her hand and put it on his shoulder. Flinched at the touch at first, but relaxed into it. Taking this as encouragement, she spoke, and passion filled her clear tones.

"You needn't be so afraid. They can handle this."

The man on her other side groaned in frustration and buried his head in his hands. "Man, this sucks! Is there anything we can do?"

The youngest of the group a child, spoke up from her place on the other side of the first man. "We can wait." She called out, her clear tones echoing through the room, bouncing off the walls and resounding through the minds of her companions. "We can wait, and we can guide them." A strange look flitted across her face, and she continued, more solemnly. "They will need it, considering what they will be put through."

A reverent silence followed as they realized the gravity of the situation.

THe silence was broken by a squeak, as the chair that it came from was subjected to it's occupant leaning back.

"We can help them, can't we?" he drawled, unimpressed. The others turned towards the source of the disturbance, as the calculating man fastened his sharp gaze on the back of the first man's chair. He smirked, pleased with the attention, and continued his thought. "After all, we can't directly interfere."

The others gave the man a look that clearly said that's-why-we-can't-help-idiot, and he rolled his eyes. He leaned into the circle, unable to disguise the excitement colouring his cheeks with an air of aloof indifference. He was animated again for the first time since they had heard the news. He grinned slyly and whispered "But we can help indirectly, can't we?"

At the blank looks he was receiving, he again rolled his eyes, and said "So it wouldn't be illegal for them to meet."

The woman sitting next to him rose, her feet making no sound as they hit the floor, and continued his thought, the same emotions visible in her as she understood his train of thought. "And it certainly wouldn't be our fault _if that made them remember._"

There was a pause, and then, as if a dam had broken, everyone spoke at once, the opinions of those against it mingling with the musings of those who agreed. It continued in this fashion for some time, until a girl, stately and regal, rose from the table.

"We must. Otherwise, they cannot win."

This hushed the rabble, and the first man sighed.

" Go." There was an explosion of movement, the sound of scraping chairs and clattering heels dominating the room as each of the people headed off to their respective stations.

It came to a point where only the first speaker and the woman who sat next to him remained.

The man turned to the woman next to him and gazed solemnly into her eyes. "Keep watch over them. Otherwise, they will get carried away."

She turned away from him, heading towards the door, before pausing, and turning ever so slightly towards him.

"This will all work out, somehow."

She turned completely, and her last words were almost swallowed by the wind.

"Don't lose hope… Aang."

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**AN II:** Sorry if it's a bit confusing. It should be. Tell me if I should keep going! Ask me questions! Just review, please.


	2. The Last Word: Part I

**AN I:** I'm sorry! I know this is really short, but I felt obliged to give you something. I will update again soon.

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**Hong Kong, China - 1:37 AM**

_It's cold, and she's dreaming. She has to be dreaming, because she's never seen this place before, and she's pretty sure it doesn't exist. There's a sound too, she realizes. Dripping? Ice. No, Water. It's water. It's so cold, and she's just sitting, watching, she can't do anything. She feels the snow and the water and the ice flow through her, the power she didn't know she had thrumming through her, heart speeding up as she realizes that __**the water is moving**__. And it's moving, and she's making it move. She relishes the feeling of control, and then it stops. She stops too, wondering what's going on as the fire starts up. It pulses out of red wearing people's hands, melting the… houses? Igloos? Structures around her, they weren't there before, and neither were all those people, and then she tries to help, because she can, but now she's 7 and unable to help, and her mother's dead, and she didn't realize that she had a mother here. That might have been worse, because now this isn't a dream, it's almost like a memory, and she's scared, and it's cold, so cold and now it's hot, and crackling, and she watches with morbid fascination and tears in her eyes as she sees two people that she must now get downed by lightning, she knows them because she's crying and telling them to wake up and then everything turns dark. And she's all alone except for this sound, this horrible, eerie dripping and the mad cackles of a girl, a girl she wants to kill, but she can't stop screaming __**she can't stop screaming **__and she wants it to end and SHE'S STILL SCREAMING _

And she screams, the bitter sound resounding through the building, she screams for them to stop, and words she didn't know the origins of were sprouting from her mouth, blooming into cloying flowers of helplessness as she's now screaming for her to stop, don't shoot him, and she's inane and rambling and making no sense and she wants to stop crying and screaming and talking but she can't control this anymore and she's so, so tired. She shaking, and she's getting louder, and SHE IS STILL SCREAMING and now the doctors come bursting through the door and they're pinning her down, telling her that she'll be able to go back to sleep soon and she wails now, but because of the fact that they're sticking a needle into her, probably a sedative, and she stops screaming as suddenly as she started, but she's still crying, but quietly now, and the kind doctor who's been in charge of her case for the 6 months that she's been there because of the nightmares holds her hand and looks her in the yes and tells her that it's alright, that it was just a dream, but that doesn't help. Because somewhere inside, she knows that it wasn't just a dream, but she falls back asleep anyways, but this time she's' calm, and the doctors leave, and she sinks further into her dreamless sleep. But right before she sinks into the welcome oblivion of her mind, Cai Liu whispers, a strangled, choked sounding whisper, and she whispers in Mandarin "Who are you?" but the blue eyed girls with loops in her hair just smiles empathetically and says 'Not yet.'

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**Toronto, Canada - 12:31 PM**

"Scott. Glad to see you finally made it." The dry sarcasm of his managers voice cut through the haze of the morning (or afternoon, he supposed) as he quickly tied his apron and winced at the multitude of sounds coming from the kitchen – there was bacon sizzling, eggs frying, blenders whirring – the overdose of noise made his head, susceptiable from yet another headache, spin, and he had to hold onto the counter to steady himself. This one, he mused, was worse than the last few. They weren't as excruciatingly painful, but the visions they presented were horribly vivid, and he would sometimes snap back to reality too quickly, hand gripping for a weapon he didn't have, smelling blood and feeling the sting of saltwater slap his face, before he returned to the real world, feeling nostalgic and sick. The visions would swim before his eyes, making him nauseous as he tried to absorb all of the information. There was a metal ship, and his sister smirking as she attacked him, and he did a lot of fighting, and he had a little sister in his visions, too. They were infuriating, interrupting his life with their strange pictures (what the hell was a sky bison, anyways) and he hated them for giving him something he couldn't get in real life. Excitement. He was fighting, or running from something, chasing something, and he relished the fake adrenaline he would get, and hate his return to the monotonous real world once the delusions faded away and he was left with a racing heart and the taste of good tea and the sound of good advice resounding They confused him, but he waited for them to come, for his own boring life to take a back shelf to the fantastic adventures that they presented him with (he had a weird name, he could remember that much). He hated that he felt more complete, more whole after seeing them, but what he hated the most was that in all of them, he had a sister. He scowled suddenly, startling the pretty new girl, Yvette, who had come to see if he was alright. His mood darkened considerably upon taking up that line of though, as unbidden, memories of his long deceased little sister. Her name had been Alice, but she had died almost a decade ago, when he had been six. She had contracted the same disease as her mother, and when she had been just three days shy of her fourth birthday, she had died.

"Scott! Come on, we need your help!"

He groaned and rolled his eyes, but obligingly left the staff area and tried to plaster a peppy smile on his face. Walking towards the front door and the couple standing there, he made his voice be as cheerful as it could be, before spewing out the usual greeting. "Welcome to Katey's diner. What can I…" he trailed off as his vision swam before his eyes, and he had to grab the table in front of him, suddenly dizzy. No pictures danced before his eyes this time, but instead the world in front of him grew hazy, sharp edges fading into blurred lines, lights a spot of fuzzy brilliance. . 'Damn.' He thought, 'Damn, damn, DAMN!' The floor in front of him was moving, making it hard for him to keep his balance, and his pulse seemed as loud as a drum. He faintly heard Yvette call out affrightendly "Scott!" but it passed through the haze of his mind very slowly, and didn't register quickly enough for him to respond. Everything seemed disconnected, like watching a badly dubbed movie, sounds not lining up with movement. The colours of the room changed, from grey to blue to the sky, and with a sudden clarity, his leg hurt. It hurt awfully, terribly, and it couldn't support his weight anymore. His grip on the table tightened, denting the cheap wood, and then his breath hitched as he clattered to the ground. As he fell, the table overturning with him, the couple stared on in horror and he realised that his pen falling with him, clattering loudly and rolling under the table. His head the ground with a crack the reverberated through his bones, making the pain in leg seem less intense. The world was skewed, perpendicular, and he didn't think he was inside anymore, he though the he was on a boat. He heard someone approach, and that was all he heard by then, everything else just static, and through his sideways vision he saw a pair of strange boots. The figure crouched down, and before his vision faded into obscurity he could've sworn that he saw a boy about his age with a ponytail and piercing eyes staring at him, mouthing something.

He also could've sworn that he was mouthing 'Welcome back.'

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**AN II:** If you think you know who the characters are, do say in a review *cough cough* or in a PM.

Virtual cookie if you get it right!

Virtual cookie if you review, too.


	3. Definately Not A Chapter

Um… hello? Is this thing on? Heh heh…

So this is what they call a return, I guess. First of all, I'm sorry to anyone actually reading this/with it from the start, my 'I'll review soon!' kind failed. As in, failed for almost a year. I apologize.

But there is good news! My friend, the lovely _seinakyou_, read this, noted the lack of update and asked if it was up for adoption. Well folks, it is. I've given her my basic vision and she's going to run with it. The first chapters may be edited, but will otherwise stay the same. So be merry! This story will be continued once again.

So once again: **Shades of Grey** will soon be taken over by _seinakyou_, who is now officially the story's author.

Sorry for the fail updates, and I wish you the best as you may/may not follow the story. I'll be following it, for sure.

~AU


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